TPP Table of Contents links to documents on Government of Canada Web Site

ToC reveals the dearth of original new content the Liberals have added to their TPP web site.

No 1589 Posted by fw, February 8, 2016

Notes:

1/ The following Table of Contents (ToC) is accurate as of February 8, 2016

2/ The purpose of the ToC is to facilitate quick and easy navigation and access to TPP documents on the Government of Canada website

3/ All headings, subheadings, document titles and other content are copied from the web site

4/ Unless otherwise noted, the dates shown in parentheses – e.g. (Oct 4, 2015) — at the end of a line of text refers to the date the document was added to the web site. This date usually appears in the bottom right corner of the web page but may also refer to the date of accompanying text.

5/ Any web page or content dated prior to the federal election date of October 19, 2015 was added under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.

6/ The web page and content dates indicate that most of the TPP material was added by the Harper government, and subsequently retained by the Liberal government.

7/ It’s worth noting that a content analysis of the entries under the Outcomes heading, all created by the Harper government, present glowing, pro-TPP benefits. Consider, for example, this selection of biased words and phrases drawn from the New Brunswick Outcomes entry — the word ‘advantage(s)’ appears 14 times as in “advantages of TPP” and in “main advantages”; wording such as “Opening new markets for products”; “The TPP will significantly improve market access opportunities…”; “TPP will eliminate the majority of remaining tariffs on industrial goods…”; “…significant potential for strong, long-term demand for the minerals and metals…” and more.

The New Brunswick entry is not an exception. In browsing other entries in the Outcomes category, it appears as though a boilerplate template may have been used in all cases. Moreover, keep in mind that the Harper government’s favourable forecasts were prepared before the TPP has even been subjected to a rigorous, methodological assessment of its merits.

8/ Is it significant, one wonders, that the Trudeau government has neither revised any of the Harper content, nor added much new content of its own? One might reasonably infer that the Liberals endorse the Harper government’s highly biased, pro-TPP interpretations of the trade agreement.

9/ The paucity of original, substantive TPP content from the Liberals is telling, especially given the prime minister’s repeated emphasis that his government would be “open and transparent”. What, one might ask, is his operational definition of ‘transparent’? Would that he would tell us so that we will be able to recognize intellectual added value if and when we bump into it.

…the government’s emphasis on transparency must extend to the TPP consultations. That requires more than just listing consultation events or inviting the public to email their views. There should be public events streamed online and outcomes from other meetings should be posted online. Moreover, Canadians should have access to consultation submissions (with individual privacy protected as desired) to allow them to better gauge the public response.